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"The Naked Now" James T. Kirk announcement

I for one sort of appreciated them using the picture of the ship as she went down, rather than a picture of the ship as she was during those events. That's verisimilitude for me...

I mean, if I searched the wikipedia or some afecionado page (or even an official naval source) for an entry on a century-old vessel, the main picture of her would in all probability represent her last known configuration, not one of the preceding ones.

Real-world organizations are embarrassed about the early low standards of their equipment, too! If Starfleet could show a modernized Constitution, it would - why stoop to showing a ship of lesser performance, of more antiquated standards?

We may think the TOS configuration represented the ship in her highest glory. Starfleet would have little reason to think that. From the Starfleet POV, the ship became better through the TMP refit, and performed her greatest and publicly best known Earth-saving feat in that guise, too.

Timo Saloniemi
 
I mean, if I searched the wikipedia or some afecionado page (or even an official naval source) for an entry on a century-old vessel, the main picture of her would in all probability represent her last known configuration, not one of the preceding ones.

You're right. Looking at the Wikipedia entries for Essex-class carriers, those that were upgraded are first shown in the post-upgrade configuration. Except for Intrepid, which shows in a WW2 picture for some reason -- I was actually expecting to see her in her current status as a museum ship in NYC.

As for Kirk, I thought TNN's mention was a bit underplayed. Wouldn't Kirk be fairly well-known to serving Starfleet officers? I imagine the officers of the current Enterprise know who, say, Halsey and Spruance were.

If Kirk isn't relatively famous as Starfleet captains go, then the TOS era must have been really dangerous.
 
I'm watching "The Naked Now" episode on WGN America right now, and just watched the part where Picard & Riker read about Kirk's mission in the original "The Naked Time". I was wondering, when this episode originally aired (The Naked Now), did anyone get excited when Picard mentioned Kirk?


Sure did! :techman: There were few deliberate nods to the original series early on.

RAMA
 
I'm watching "The Naked Now" episode on WGN America right now, and just watched the part where Picard & Riker read about Kirk's mission in the original "The Naked Time". I was wondering, when this episode originally aired (The Naked Now), did anyone get excited when Picard mentioned Kirk?

As I recall, a lot of fans and reviewers were upset by the name drop. These days, fandom gets so obsessive about continuity and consistency, but back then, the prevailing reaction was "What's the point of rehashing Star Trek unless they find a way to make it fresh and new?" There was a sentiment that the show needed to establish its own identity as something original rather than just more of the same, so having their first post-pilot episode be an out-and-out remake of a TOS episode, complete with a name-drop of Kirk's Enterprise, was widely seen as a misstep.

At least, that's what I remember reading in the audience reactions at the time. But then, as now, the people who object to something are more vocal than the people who approve of it. So maybe there were people who were excited by the reference. But consider the context. This was a time when the TOS crew was still around in the movies. It had only been a year or so since TVH, a very successful original-cast movie, and they were developing another movie. So it wasn't like the original cast had been gone for a long time or was expected to be going away anytime soon. So I don't think a thrill of excitement would be the most common reaction to a mention of Kirk. It was more like "Come on, we've got plenty of Kirk already, give us something new!"

You have to remember that part of TNG's "mission statement" per some of GRs comments was to in many ways "reboot" the Trek universe, which is why so many things got changed around (no credits, etc). Another part was that supposedly there would be virtually no "call backs" to TOS. Klingons and Romulans, for example, were not supposed to appear at all (thus the need for the Ferengi).

Now that didn't last long, in some ways, what with the writiers managing to get Worf approved and all, but TNG never lost the slightly "dismissive" tone towards TOS that it inherited from those early days. It DID tone down a bit over time, and thus we got eps like the reasonably respectful "Relics" (though they still treated Scotty horribly). "Unification" just made me want to slap the hell out of Picard for talking to Spock that way "this sort of cowboy diplomacy...".... :mad:

And don't get me started on the sneering dismissiveness of Janeway over in Voyager "The whole lot of them would be thrown out of Starfleet...":mad::mad::mad:

The only show to give TOS the respect it deserved was DS9, really.


What an odd point of view, I never felt they looked down on TOS at all...a sense mainly two things...the desire to re-make ST on their own terms and without relying on elements of ST TV history. That some of the producers thought TOS was good, but that modern production and writing could make STNG better...a healthy attitude to have...and they were right!

I also never understood certain "purists" views on "Relics". I thought they treated Scotty quite well considering his "volunteered" info was 80 years out of date. It was the single best dramatic story ever told with Scotty involved, he never had that much screen time in TOS! While the original crew is beloved, they never really were well developed.

RAMA
 
As I see it, the TNG intro states ".... It's continuing Mission...." it's the Enterprise D, thus they know very well Kirk and the Enterprise.

If my memory is correct, it was Data reporting the previous incident, and like the Data we all know, he stated it generically as he normally would, stating what ship it was and who captained it, even if it was common knowledge by all there.

The details of the original Enterprise's various missions might not have been on the top of everybody's head, but they'd know the ship and know the captain.

While I didn't really care for the episode overall, I had no personal issue with them "Dropping" Kirk's name or mentioning of the original Enterprise.

To me, it'd be kinda silly to have a new Star Trek with another Enterprise and never once mention anything about the original Star Trek or the original Enterprise.

When I look back at the Original series and TNG, there were many things that were a bit different between the two shows, thus dropping some names, having McCoy appear in the first episode, later having Spock and Scotty show up on other episodes is perfectly fine for me.

If you're not going to tie the other series like TOS, DS9, Voyager, etc. together like they relate in any way, why bother calling another ship the Enterprise? Why bother bring O'Brien and Worf to DS9? Why even mention the Badlands or the Maquis in Voyager? Or the Borg for that matter?

They were all part of the bigger ST Universe, thus tossing out examples, or interactions/history links between the shows should be perfectly fine.

There's worse things to bicker about imo :P
 
As I see it, the TNG intro states ".... It's continuing Mission...." it's the Enterprise D, thus they know very well Kirk and the Enterprise.

No, that was just because it wasn't going to be a five-year mission and they needed another word in place of "five-year" to get the rhythm right. After all, it's a different ship, so its mission isn't a continuation of some other ship's mission.


To me, it'd be kinda silly to have a new Star Trek with another Enterprise and never once mention anything about the original Star Trek or the original Enterprise.

True, but the objection at the time was that it was brought in too soon. It's easy to look back from 23 years later and say it was fine, but at a time when this new cast was still trying to prove itself to audiences, to climb out from under the long shadow cast by the original crew, it was seen as a misstep to call attention to the old crew so early in the game.

And really, TNG did have trouble distinguishing itself from TOS early on, perhaps because it had some of the same writers and producers early on. The Q plot in the pilot was a rehash of super-advanced TOS aliens like Trelane and the Organians, the second episode was a blatant remake of "The Naked Time," the third episode ("Code of Honor") culminated in a combat scene that was widely regarded as an "Amok Time" rehash, and so on. It took them a while to establish a distinctive voice.



If you're not going to tie the other series like TOS, DS9, Voyager, etc. together like they relate in any way... Why even mention the Badlands or the Maquis in Voyager?

Other way around, really. The Maquis were created as backstory for VGR, and seeded in TNG and DS9 to set up the new spinoff. Though it can be hard to realize that considering that DS9 made better use of the Maquis concept than VGR itself did.
 
What an odd point of view, I never felt they looked down on TOS at all...a sense mainly two things...the desire to re-make ST on their own terms and without relying on elements of ST TV history. That some of the producers thought TOS was good, but that modern production and writing could make STNG better...a healthy attitude to have...and they were right!

I also never understood certain "purists" views on "Relics". I thought they treated Scotty quite well considering his "volunteered" info was 80 years out of date. It was the single best dramatic story ever told with Scotty involved, he never had that much screen time in TOS! While the original crew is beloved, they never really were well developed.

RAMA
I heartily agree. I find it quite unrealistic how some fans feel the TOS crew should be treated like gods in the eyes of every other character. To me, to do so lessens the characters and makes them much harder to buy into. Real people, and therefore interesting characters are flawed, imperfect beings. It is possible to dissagree with someone, and still respect them. I love my wife and children, but there are times that I think they are 100 % wrong about things. While we may not agree with Janeway's view that they'd be booted out of Starfleet today, by her standards, that's how she sees it, and that's legitimate. Also, after 100 years, people's perspectives, and how history records things, can change drastically.
I don't remember the episode title, but Babylon 5 did a great episode where they go into the show's future, and the people there have an entirely different take on the main characters than the viewers got while watching the show.
 
While we may not agree with Janeway's view that they'd be booted out of Starfleet today, by her standards, that's how she sees it, and that's legitimate. Also, after 100 years, people's perspectives, and how history records things, can change drastically.

Suddenly I'm reminded of Pike's remarks in ST XI about Starfleet having lost some quality in its officers.
 
What an odd point of view, I never felt they looked down on TOS at all...a sense mainly two things...the desire to re-make ST on their own terms and without relying on elements of ST TV history. That some of the producers thought TOS was good, but that modern production and writing could make STNG better...a healthy attitude to have...and they were right!

Then they should have gone full reboot at the time, not tied the new show deliberately into the old one.

I also never understood certain "purists" views on "Relics".

Hardly a "purist". I like modern Trek well enough, but the issue of how each series treated it's original source is a thorny one. The only one that gave TOS and it's characters the respect and honor due to them was DS9. After all, Kirk and crew were galactic heroes, who had saved both individual planets and galactic civilization itself many many times over.

I thought they treated Scotty quite well considering his "volunteered" info was 80 years out of date.

Geordi was an outright frakking ass to him. Picard pulled the condescending "everyone needs to feel useful" routine (which if you rewatch that scene he told Geordi he was free to ignore what he said).
 
Re: QUINTO'S SPOCK SHOULD BE CONSTANTLY SHOUTING!!!

And don't forget, most of the stuff Kirk and Picard's crews did "first" were pre-empted by Star Trek Enterprise. Time travel, cloaking devices, the Borg, alternate universes...Archer's lot did it all first. So Kirk and co look like a dolts too, now :lol:.
 
In the prime reality of Kirk's universe, little Jonny Archer drown playing water polo when he was twelve.
 
Re: QUINTO'S SPOCK SHOULD BE CONSTANTLY SHOUTING!!!

And don't forget, most of the stuff Kirk and Picard's crews did "first" were pre-empted by Star Trek Enterprise. Time travel, cloaking devices, the Borg, alternate universes...Archer's lot did it all first. So Kirk and co look like a dolts too, now :lol:.

Well, not exactly. They never travelled through time without help from the future, so Kirk's Enterprise was the first ship to time-travel on its own. Cloaking devices have been penetrated and re-invented many times throughout history (which is how Spock could figure out how to pierce the Klingon cloak in TUC but Picard and his contemporaries couldn't see through the cloaks of that era). Archer's crew never knew the identity of the Borg (or Ferengi), and we had already learned that the first human contact with the Borg was made by the Hansen family years before "Q Who." And while we, the viewers, saw Archer's crew in an alternate universe, the Prime NX-01 crew never knew about it.
 
Re: QUINTO'S SPOCK SHOULD BE CONSTANTLY SHOUTING!!!

And don't forget, most of the stuff Kirk and Picard's crews did "first" were pre-empted by Star Trek Enterprise. Time travel, cloaking devices, the Borg, alternate universes...Archer's lot did it all first. So Kirk and co look like a dolts too, now :lol:.

Well, not exactly. They never travelled through time without help from the future, so Kirk's Enterprise was the first ship to time-travel on its own. Cloaking devices have been penetrated and re-invented many times throughout history (which is how Spock could figure out how to pierce the Klingon cloak in TUC but Picard and his contemporaries couldn't see through the cloaks of that era). Archer's crew never knew the identity of the Borg (or Ferengi), and we had already learned that the first human contact with the Borg was made by the Hansen family years before "Q Who." And while we, the viewers, saw Archer's crew in an alternate universe, the Prime NX-01 crew never knew about it.

You never take a break,do you?
 
I personally thought it was cool that Kirk was mentioned. (After all, it was 'The Next Generation,' so a nod to TOS was expected and welcomed).
 
I read a very funny parody of TNG in a gaming magazine back when TNG was new. It was ostensibly a guide to role-playing in the TNG era (tongue firmly in cheek).
I remember that one column on the "generate a story randomly" tables was for the special hook for this episode, and one was "open admission that this entire story was ripped from an episode of TOS". ;)

I seem to recall also that they gave Troi a fairly high score in "Sense painfully obvious, but ultimately useless, information".
 
But also to be fair, Kirk's crew saved the galaxy's ass on numerous occasions.

Why SHOULDN'T people respect the guy a little?

Although, Christopher is quite correct, for the FIRST spinoff, the second episode was way way way too early to mention anything TOS-wise.
 
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